The Gift that Keeps on Giving: Building a Successful Nonprofit Website

What makes a nonprofit website truly impactful?

It’s more than just aesthetics – it’s about creating a platform that tells compelling stories, inspires action and builds lasting connections. Whether a nonprofit’s goal is to boost online donations, recruit volunteers or promote an upcoming campaign, its website is where it all begins. For organizations with tight budgets and limited resources, a dynamic, user-friendly and fully optimized website can be a game-changer. It defends your cause, attracts new supporters, raises vital funds and spreads awareness worldwide.

With 44% of nonprofit website visits driven by organic traffic and 68% of organizations having redesigned their sites in the past three years, the importance of staying optimized and engaging cannot be overstated. By focusing on user experiences, accessibility and compelling storytelling, you can turn your website into a powerful tool that amplifies your impact and shares your story with the world.

The Key Components of a Successful Nonprofit Website

1.      User-friendly layout

A nonprofit website should be simple, visually appealing and accessible. Visitors should be able to find anything within three clicks.

Be careful not to overload users with information that’s poorly organized. Make sure essential information is easy to find. Adding a webchat or chatbot that provides personalized responses can also enhance user experiences and encourage repeat visits.

Quick Tips to Refine Your Nonprofit Website’s Layout

• Design a sitemap that organizes your website’s pages logically, clearly showing how each page connects to the others. Whether building or redesigning your nonprofit website, a sitemap provides valuable insight into how visitors navigate your site. It’s a simple yet powerful tool to enhance clarity and usability.

• Include only the most important page links on your main menu. Use the second or third-level drop-down menus if your main pages feature a lot of sub-pages.

• Showcase important links throughout your site. For example, make links to donation or fundraising pages eye-catching and easy to find.

• Align with user expectations by designing a mobile-responsive layout. Desktop users typically prefer a clearly labelled menu at the top right, while mobile users appreciate the convenience of a hamburger menu (the three-line icon). In both cases, your navigation should guide users to the right information quickly. Also swap out unclear icons for descriptive text for greater clarity.

• Incorporate search functionality to help visitors easily find the information they’re looking for.

2.     Optimized user journeys to boost engagement

Nonprofits rely on strong donor relationships and diverse funding sources. A well-designed website and active social media presence can help with both – engaging donors, volunteers, supporters and beneficiaries.

Nonprofits should map out donor journeys to illustrate how potential supporters evolve into committed donors and advocates for your cause.

The typical donor journey is broken into five stages – awareness, research, decision, appreciation and repetition.

• Awareness

To raise awareness and engage new supporters, you need a strong online presence. Optimizing your website for SEO makes it easier for potential donors and supporters to find you. Keep your site fresh and engaging by regularly updating it with the latest news, events and success stories.

Boost engagement further with valuable resources like white papers, infographics and videos in your email campaigns. Short videos on platforms like YouTube help spread your mission far and wide. Sharing blog posts and content across social media channels, with links back to your website, increases visibility and drives traffic. This keeps your audience connected and motivated to act.

Understanding your audience through user personas ensures your content speaks directly to their interests. Compelling storytelling that features human interest stories, photos, videos and testimonials, builds an emotional connection that encourages support for your cause.

• Research

Once users become aware of your mission, they’ll often dig deeper to decide how they can support your cause. To keep them engaged, regularly update your website with content that reinforces your mission. A well-maintained blog can drive more traffic, while social sharing buttons can amplify user engagement across social media. Use your blog as a platform to share real-life stories and experiences from those directly affected by your cause, including testimonials from donors and community members.

Enhance the experience with a gallery of photos, case studies and videos that show the impact of your work. This helps build trust, boost your credibility and expand your reach.

• Decision

When someone connects with your mission and feels inspired, their first donation could be just a click away – so keep the process as seamless and straightforward as possible. Your donation page should be easy to find and accessible from any part of your website, with clear and eye-catching “Donate Now” buttons placed throughout your content. A heartfelt story can inspire donations, so pair it with a relevant call-to-action that encourages contributions.

To enhance the donor experience, offer multiple donation options like one-time gifts, recurring donations or donations in memory of someone. Make sure the donation process is secure by integrating a reliable payment gateway.

To enable these kinds of dynamic, responsive experiences and features, you’ll need a robust CMS platform like Drupal for nonprofits. You’ll be able to enhance user experiences by optimizing for multi-device accessibility, particularly on mobile, and improving page load speeds.

• Appreciation

Each donation builds the foundation for a long-lasting relationship. Follow up with personalized thank-you notes and automated emails showing the impact of donors’ gifts. Encourage donors to share their experiences on social media and offer options to sign up for newsletters or blogs. In the same way that you’d track email campaign performance, monitor your website and social media analytics to understand your audience better. Use metrics like user demographics to create tailored content that resonates with your supporters.

• Repetition

The final step of the journey is to gain recurring donors. While emails, video or voice calls and direct messages are great ways to sustain long-term relationships, it’s important to ensure your website and marketing content stay up-to-date. Every time a donor checks your website, inspire them with valuable messaging; highlight your most recent accomplishments, welcome feedback, share success stories and post upcoming events and registration links. Show appreciation to event registrants as they complete each step and guide them through to the next call to action.

3.     Secure and convenient payments

Ensure your “Donate” buttons or links work and payments can be made online easily and securely. Track donations and be sure to thank your donors and send them receipts for tax purposes.

Nonprofits and NGOs are increasingly targeted by cyber threats, with 27% of nonprofit organizations falling victim to attacks. Many lack up-to-date security protocols, leaving them vulnerable to potential breaches and a loss of donor trust.

Implement secure payment processing for your nonprofit.

• Integrate a Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC)-compliant payment processing solution into your website.

• Check the security best practices and PCI compliance standards followed by your third-party payment processor.

• Restrict access to donor credit card information.

• Implement multi-factor authentication or use password managers to regularly update passwords.

• Develop a strong defense strategy by implementing antivirus, anti-malware, firewall and intrusion prevention systems.

• Adhere to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Make their own data available to donors upon request. Utilize the services of a legal counsel as needed.

• Make sure your website has Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates to ensure a secure connection. Donors should access your nonprofit site through a protected (https://) link on every page.

Build Your Website with the Best CMS for Nonprofits

A strong content management system enables you to easily add new pages, update news and keep your website fresh and engaging. Regularly publishing content drives more traffic, attracts donations and enhances audience interaction.

Look for a feature-rich CMS that offers best-in-class benefits:

• Ease of use. Some CMS platforms have complex backend interfaces that are difficult to navigate. Choose a CMS that’s easy to maintain and update on a regular basis. Your CMS should be intuitive, easy-to-use and require minimal training.

• Reliable support. Adopt a CMS that offers extensive community support. Ensure less tech-savvy employees can get in touch with a support team member to receive prompt, reliable help.

• Cost is an important consideration in CMS selection. Choosing an open-source CMS with a broader support community, security, add-ons and an accessible knowledge base is a sensible choice from a budget perspective.

• SEO features. Choose a CMS that allows you to develop an SEO-friendly nonprofit website. Your CMS should support customizable URLs, page titles and meta-data. Your website should create an environment conducive to digital marketing and enable analytics for tracking visitors.

• Flexibility and scalability. A nonprofit’s CMS should be able to handle later expansions – including added features, new pages and other integrations.

Why Is Drupal the Right CMS for Nonprofits?

Drupal is a versatile and widely trusted CMS, powering renowned nonprofit and NGO websites like Amnesty International, Greenpeace and the YMCA. Its user-friendly interface, extensive developer community and impressive library of over 40,000 modules and 2,500 themes make it a popular choice for nonprofit web development.

As an open-source platform, Drupal offers robust access control, enterprise-grade security, customizable coding and themes and the flexibility to scale with your organization’s evolving needs. With built-in multilingual support and seamless integration with a variety of third-party applications, Drupal is an ideal choice for nonprofits and NGOs that require a breadth of features and flexibility.

Transform Your Nonprofit Experiences with Drupal + Material

The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, a volunteer-driven nonprofit dedicated to finding cures for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, faced challenges with its outdated, non-scalable CMS. These difficulties included slow content updates, dependency on developers and fragmented user experiences across siloed microsites. To support its mission to improve the quality of life for over 1.2 million patients annually, it needed a modern, cohesive digital presence.

Partnering with Material, the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation streamlined its digital strategy by utilizing Drupal’s migration API for quick, efficient content migration. The result was a unified web platform that allowed for consistent branding and simplified workflows for content editors.

The Foundation saw improved user interaction, with pages per session doubling and a 24% drop in bounce rates. Maintenance costs decreased and, by consolidating CMS licenses, it reduced expenses while scaling seamlessly. With reusable components and optimized content management, content editors can now publish faster across all microsites, ensuring the Foundation’s digital presence is as impactful as its mission.

If your nonprofit or NGO wants to enhance its digital presence, consider working with Material’s experts to create a scalable, user-friendly solution for nonprofit website management that aligns with your mission and goals. Let’s start the conversation.